In a lawsuit filed with Fukushima District Court in March 2013, some 3,800 residents in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures in northeastern Japan demanded that the government and TEPCO reduce radiation at their areas of residence to levels before the nuclear accident and pay some ¥16 billion in damages.

In his ruling, presiding Judge Kanazawa Hideki said that the accident could have been averted, ordering the government and TEPCO to pay ¥250 million each in damages to a total of some 2,900 of the plaintiffs.

The court dismissed the plaintiffs’ petition for cutting radiation levels.

This is the third ruling in some 30 similar lawsuits nationwide and the second one recognizing the government’s responsibility for damages.